Taber police service seeing less calls due to COVID-19 pandemic

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

There has been plenty of doom and gloom to go around in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through North America, but one positive has been overall lowering of calls for the Taber Police Service in the last month.

With several businesses ordered to shut down, snowbirds in self-quarantine, and the general public social distancing or isolating themselves in their houses, certain crime calls of seen drops in numbers.

“Our calls for service, in general, are very low. But, we do have crime we are investigating that is not COVID related,” said Graham Abela, chief of police for the Taber Police Service. “Our call volume is down. I just got off the phone with the chiefs in the province and the other chiefs are saying the same thing.”

Residential break and enters are down due to people self-isolating at home, although commercial break-ins away from residences are up.

“There are some people who are taking advantage of people in these COVID circumstances. But we are out on patrol and we are very visible in the community. The Taber Police Service has not been impacted by illness or any COVID-related issues to date,” said Abela. “My inspector and my senior management team are taking serious steps to have the business continuity in place to ensure our residents are safe and to keep up with the duties we have in town.”